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Holocaust memorial should be returned to its rightful home

An important memorial of Canada’s failure to help Jewish refugees who were eventually killed by the Nazis is languishing in a warehouse where no one can see it.

The Wheel of Conscience, shown in this artist's rendition, was once displayed at Pier 21, Canada's immigration museum in Halifax, but is now languishing in a warehouse. (THE CANADIAN PRESS)

By Bernie M. FarberAndrew Griffith

Tues., Nov. 18, 2014

The Wheel of Conscience, a memorial designed by world-renowned architect Daniel Libeskind had one urgent purpose: to remind us of the refusal to accept Jewish refugees by the Canadian and other governments on the eve of the Holocaust. It was to stand on display at Pier 21, Canada’s immigration museum in Halifax, as a symbol of the horrors of intolerance and its ultimate end point.

And for a time it served that important role. The memorial stood on display at Pier 21 until a mechanical problem saw it moved to a warehouse. Though the problem has been long-since fixed, the Wheel still languishes there.

That’s a shame. Libeskind’s creation was a promised permanent memorial to all those who suffered and were lost to Hitler’s tyranny. To date, it is the only such publicly funded and acknowledged testament to their lives. Now, ironically, the Wheel has become a homeless refugee itself.

The monument was funded as part of the government’s commendable initiative to aid a number of communities in marking their past experience with immigration restrictions and wartime internment. The best of these captured both the particular community experience as well universal lessons from these tragedies.

Libeskind has been explicit about the Wheel’s treatment of these lessons:

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“The words ‘hatred,’ ‘racism,’ ‘xenophobia,’ ‘anti-Semitism’ are applied in relief to the face of the gears. The large wheel is moved first, by the smallest and fastest rotating gear of ‘hatred.’ This small gear transfers its force to the next larger gear of ‘racism,’ which moves a little slower. Then the force of racism turns the yet larger gear of ‘xenophobia,’ which moves yet even slower. Finally, the three gears combined move the largest and most prominent gear of ‘anti-Semitism.’ The rotating gears fracture and reassemble the image of the ship [the MS ST. Louis] at set intervals.”

While the largest gear is labelled anti-Semitism, it could just as well be labelled Islamophobia or with the names of other strains of intolerance and hate.

The particular events that the Wheel commemorates hold lessons about the terrible costs of xenophobia that ought not to be stored away in a warehouse.

The MS St. Louis sailed on May 27, 1939, with 937 Jews from Germany on board, heading for Cuba, where all the passengers had valid visas. Cuba refused them entry, as did the United States.

Gustav Schroeder, captain of the St. Louis, was a man of great humanity and he refused to abandon his passengers. He headed for the shores of Canada, approaching Halifax Harbour’s Pier 21.

There the luckless Jewish passengers encountered the anti-Semitism that was a hallmark of the Canadian government of the time when it came to the question of Jewish refugees.

Then-prime minister Mackenzie King turned a deaf ear to pleas from the Canadian Jewish Congress and refused to consider any offer of sanctuary. Eventually, after weeks at sea, rampant sickness, despair and disillusionment began to affect most of the passengers.

An editorial in the New York Times lamented, “The cruise of the St. Louis cries to heaven of man’s inhumanity to men.”

Capt. Schroeder remained resolute and, with the assistance of the Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, negotiations with Britain, Belgium, Holland and France led to each of these countries accepting a total of 900 passengers (29 had managed to get into Cuba).

But the reprieve was short-lived: the Jewish passengers granted temporary asylum in mainland Europe were caught in the Nazi blitzkrieg. More than a third of them perished under the Nazis.

The Wheel of Conscience serves as a reminder, in today’s troubled times, of the need for a more understanding and welcoming approach to refugees, whether we’re talking about the millions displaced in the Mideast or the refugee claimants fighting for health-care access here in Canada. And it serves as a reminder, too, of the terrible cost of the opposite approach.

Treating the Wheel as so much junk packed away in a dark warehouse for no one to see is a disgrace. Canadian Holocaust survivors have stated their desire to have the memorial at Pier 21 where it properly deserves to be. It is time for the federal government under whose auspices Pier 21 operates to take action.

The Wheel of Conscience belongs at the gateway to Canada, where it can stand as a canary in the mine, a cry against inhumanity and intolerance. Let it no longer be a refugee, let it be granted its proper home.

Bernie M. Farber is the former CEO of Canadian Jewish Congress during the time of the Wheel of Conscience. Today he is a human rights advocate. He works with First Nations and with homeless youth as CEO of the Paloma Foundation.

Andrew Griffith is the former Director General for Citizenship and Multiculturalism during the time of the Wheel of Conscience and is the author of Policy Arrogance or Innocent Bias: Resetting Citizenship and Multiculturalism.

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